3·6% Council Tax hike as worst budget ever threatens big cuts in services

While many expected the Conservatives to attack local government funding, the speed and ferocity of the cuts has left many breathless and in shock. Residents of Surrey have taken the biggest 'hit' in the country, with huge cuts to both Spelthorne and Surrey Councils.

The key points of the budget are:

• The overall level of cuts are far less in the Midlands and the North.
• The 'New Homes Bonus' has been slashed. The New Homes Bonus is a Government scheme which is aimed at encouraging local authorities to grant planning permissions for the building of new homes in return for additional revenue. Spelthorne had expected to get around £1.9m for the next six years. Now it will be getting just £1.2m for only four years. Of this amount £2.8m will go to Surrey. It was to be Spelthorne's largest source of income and we will now lose almost half of it.
• Some pots of money have been re-named and called 'new money'.
• The extra increases in council tax are not called extra council tax but an additional precept. It is a pure stealth tax.
• Conservatives are claiming they got extra money from Government. Surrey, after all the extra money, still wanted £57m over two years but got £24m. Spelthorne got £198k over 2 years (compared to the £7.2m they will lose in the next 6 years).

Oh yes… and in 2019, the year before the general election, Spelthorne will have to give the Government £725k.

The really serious implications are with the services supplied by Surrey: Highways, Youth Service and Libaries ahve already been cut, but the real fears are in Fire Service and social care for both adults and children. While the Surrrey leaders are no doubt cushioned by the huge pay rises they awarded themselves last year, the rest of us are not.

Cllr Ian Beardsmore said: "This is the worse budget settlement I have seen in 25 years. The Tories still have given no reason for the swingeing cuts in local authority funding that has just given us the biggest local tax hike in years along with a programme of reducing services. The cynics explanation that they can just take their vote in Surrey for granted is sadly looking increasingly plausible."